Finding Balance

Something I have thought about a lot recently is finding balance.

Is it possible to lose weight while having a social life?
Is it possible to have the body of your dreams without constantly feeling deprived?
Is it possible to keep the weight off?

Someone said something to me the other day that kind of made it all click. She is struggling with her weight and is going to use HCG to get the weight off. She told me: "When I go back to eating normally I should be able to keep it off". I think I offended her when I bluntly replied "The reason most people can't lose weight is because they refuse to accept that their normal needs to change".

It's like the age old saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always have what you've always got"

Want to lose weight? CHANGE YOUR NORMAL.

It's not easy! That's why most people can't do it. 

But... at the same time... Want to keep it off? FIND BALANCE.

I would love to eat 100% clean, high protein, low carbs and lift heavy things until I have a bikini model's body but I know it's not what I personally want to live like. I want to enjoy Friday night drinks with friends, enjoy soft serve Tuesday at work and continue learning to cook amazing food. So far I have not given up any of those things. I have cut down to help shift the weight, but I have not given them up. And I never will.

I eat 1,500 calories per day, and I go over that at least one day a week. I eat chocolate every day. When jet plane lollies are going around at work I take two without tracking it. I don't eat my calories earned by exercise, and I exercise once or twice a day by running, hitting the gym, tennis lessons and also simple things like walking to work which gets in a lot of exercise as well as saving me money and the helping the environment.

The trick with weight loss is so simple it would have blown my mind if I had known it in January:
Find something you can do forever and just stick with it. Don't do it all at once, change one thing at a time until you are there.

Don't want to eat fish and steamed veggies forever? Then don't. But at the same time, don't expect the body that goes with it. Don't want to give up a daily muffin and mocha? Then don't, but also don't complain if you are overweight. I will be happy to be a stocky size 10/12 when I hit goal... Because it means I don't have to give up things that are more important to me than a clothing size.